More information and the link to registration for the Spring 2018 Introduction to Planning and Zoning workshops can now be found by going to the “Intro to Planning and Zoning Workshops” link at the top of your screen.

The link to registration for the Spring 2017 Introduction to Planning and Zoning workshops can now be found by going to the “Intro to Planning and Zoning Workshops” link on the left side of the screen.

The Community and Economic Development (CED) unit of ISUEO has released the Iowa Government Finance Initiative (IGFI) Annual Fiscal Conditions report, Fiscal Year Ending (FYE) 2015 for the 99 counties in Iowa. In addition to including the updated revenue and expenditure data for all the counties in Iowa for FYE 2015, the report also includes select county level socioeconomic data released by the U.S. Census data earlier this year.

The IGFI reports are a valuable resource to communities in Iowa, especially those that are small and primarily rural in nature to learn about the economic, demographic and fiscal changes taking place and potentially use them as they plan for their future. The FYE 2014 and 2015 county reports can be accessed by clicking on the ‘county reports’ tab at http://igfi.extension.iastate.edu/.

IGFI is the public finance outreach program from ISU Extension and Outreach that provides resources and works with Iowa local governments on a host of issues including finance and community economic development. The team working on county reports consists of Biswa Das, Cindy Kendall, Liesl Eathington, Chris Seeger, Bailey Hanson and Sandra Burke. Questions on the report can be sent to Biswa Das at bdas@iastate.edu or Cindy Kendall at ckendall@iastate.edu.

You can now download a brochure describing the Intro to Planning and Zoning workshops by following this link and going to the top of the page. For those in your city/county/office who may be interested in the workshops but are not readers of this blog (shame on them!) please print a copy and distribute. Reminder of the dates and locations:

Municipalities in Iowa and across the nation are increasingly recognizing the multiple benefits of urban agriculture; however, zoning regulations can unintentionally impede urban agriculture. To respond to this challenge the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University funded Gary Taylor and Andrea Vaage to develop the Municipal Zoning for Local Foods in Iowa guidebook. The guidebook provides science-based guidance and sample zoning code language designed to reduce the barriers to, and promote production and sales activities commonly associated with urban agriculture. Although written for Iowa, the guidebook contains practical information and code language applicable to any local jurisdiction.

The guidebook can be found by going to the top of this page and clicking on the “Local Food Systems projects” tab.

To develop the guidebook the authors collected zoning code language from 84 municipalities across the nation on a variety of topics related to urban agriculture, and also researched practice-oriented scientific publications from a variety of sources, such as the United States Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Cooperative Extension publications from several university Extension services. The result is guidebook chapters that address the following common urban agriculture uses: aquaculture, bees, chickens, goats, front-yard gardens, community and market gardens, gardening on vacant lots, urban farms, season extenders, composting, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) drop-sites, farm stands, farmers markets, food trucks and pushcarts, and urban agriculture districts. Each chapter provides a general description of the activity, and the science-based information on standards and best practices associated with the activity; the public health, safety and welfare concerns commonly associated with the activity; a summary of the commonalities found among municipalities’ codes; and sample code language taken from municipalities that vary both in size and location.

A webinar will be hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach on September 30, 2015 from noon to 1:00p.m.Central time to inform participants of the issues associated with zoning and urban agriculture, and to introduce the guidebook to planning officials and city staff of Iowa municipalities.

To access the link to the webinar you can again go to the top of this page and click on the “Local Food Systems projects” tab.

Just after I posted the last message I received information about another webinar on Reed v. Gilbert, this one offered by the APA Planning and Law Division. Information below and here:

A Sign Regulation Apocalypse? Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision In Reed v. Town of Gilbert

July 21, 2015
1:00–2:30 p.m. EST

CM |1.50
L 1.50
CLE credits also will be available

The Planning and Law Division of the American Planning Association is pleased to host the upcoming webcast A Sign Regulation Apocalypse? Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision In Reed v. Town of Gilbert on Tuesday, July 21st from 1:00 to 2:30 PM EST. Registration is $20 for PLD members and $40 for nonmembers.

On June 15, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Town of Gilbert, Arizona’s sign code. In a rare unanimous decision, all of the justices of the Court agreed that the Town’s code violated the core First Amendment requirement of content neutrality, and the majority opinion provided new insight on what it means for a regulation to be “content neutral.” The Court’s decision is expected to put thousands of sign codes at increased risk of legal challenges, which could mean increased legal costs for local governments, as well as potential negative impacts on communities’ aesthetic concerns. This program will include presentations by some of the nation’s leading scholars and practitioners on First Amendment and land use issues. Panelists will discuss the facts of the Reed case, the Court’s rationale for its decision, some of the important questions and unanswered issues stemming from the case, and some helpful practice pointers on sign code drafting and enforcement.

In Reed v. Town of Gilbert the Supreme Court ruled that Gilbert’s sign code violates the First Amendment. Many, if not most, communities must now revise their sign codes. Most sign codes apply different rules to different categories of signs based on content, which the Supreme Court now generally prohibits. Discuss the practical implications of this case for local governments with John M. Baker, Greene Espel.